Chapter 196. Washington Castle
〈King of the Savannah〉 was a political revenge drama about elephants, the rulers of the grasslands.
Serin was auditioning for the role of Nara, the girlfriend of the protagonist, Elva, who dreamed of avenging his dead father.
They assured us that the elephants would be properly anthropomorphized, so there was no need to worry about Serin having to wear an elephant trunk.
When Serin, Anna, and I entered the audition hall, two white men stood from their seats.
I'd spoken to both of them on the phone before.
Their names were Kellin and DeAndre.
Apparently, 〈King of the Savannah〉 was being run by two co-directors.
If there were two directors, wouldn't the quality naturally be twice as good?
...I knew that was a simplistic calculation.
The point was that both of them were famous enough to justify sharing the title.
"We have quite a few colleagues at World Dizn, so we were very surprised when we heard Serin, who had already been cast by World Dizn Korea, wanted to audition for us. Hahaha."
The directors smiled as they evaluated the acting Serin had shown so far.
They had apparently watched both 〈The Stranger〉 and 〈Good Pro〉.
They said the emotional appeal in her eyes was especially strong, and that her movement and vocal projection, which they considered the fundamentals of acting, were also promising.
To them, movement and projection were the basics.
Only after mastering those could an actor begin working on detail.
And someone who knew how to control those details could be called a first-rate actor.
Then they praised Serin by saying she already had all of those things.
"Thank you."
When I translated what they said, Serin bowed politely.
The directors smiled with satisfaction.
Anna and I sat in one corner of the theater.
The two directors took seats in the second row.
Serin stood alone on the stage.
The larger of the two, Kellin, asked,
"Did you prepare a script?"
At that question, Serin glanced toward me.
We had discussed this beforehand.
She just needed to do exactly what we'd planned.
"I did prepare something separately. But if possible, I'd like to perform whatever you ask me to."
Serin spoke in somewhat clumsy English.
The directors exchanged interested whispers.
"All right. Then do anything you want. Anything."
We asked for a topic and they gave us anything?
Wasn't a free topic always the hardest kind?
And in this case, it meant she had to perform something other than what she'd prepared.
Serin fell into deep thought.
What kind of performance would she choose?
Whatever it was, I hoped it would surpass their expectations.
"Then... I'll act as an amateur rapper."
"A rapper?"
The directors looked surprised.
Anna and I did too.
We'd decided she should accept whatever acting prompt they gave her so she could demonstrate that she could properly analyze and perform any character.
But even I hadn't imagined she'd choose an amateur rapper.
"Interesting. Let's see it."
Serin called Anna over for a moment.
Since this wasn't something she'd prepared, she didn't have lyrics or a beat ready.
Serin and Anna looked at a phone together and exchanged a few words.
Soon, Anna stepped back down from the stage.
"She's a rapper who's been through all kinds of hardships. By chance, she finally gets to perform on a huge stage, and she's rapping while overwhelmed with emotion."
"Good."
"If you give me about five minutes, I'll memorize the lyrics and perform it."
So Serin was given a short break to memorize the lyrics.
I walked over to Anna and asked whether she'd played Serin a recording.
"No. I only gave her the beat and the written lyrics. Unni has to find the rhythm herself."
Can she pull that off?
They'd all tried rapping at least once while preparing 〈Lucky Driver〉.
Serin was capable of doing the basics.
But could she really handle suddenly rapping over a beat like this?
Could acting ability cover something like that too?
Anna and I spent those five minutes feeling like half a day had passed while Serin memorized the lyrics.
Then, just as the five minutes ended and Serin was about to begin acting...
The rear door of the theater, where there were only five people total, the two directors, Anna, Serin, and me, suddenly swung open.
Everyone turned at once.
A middle-aged woman stood awkwardly in the doorway, looking from face to face.
"Oh. I came to check the stage. Is it in use?"
It was Jennifer McCarthy, director of 〈Geronimo〉, the musical starring Sarah Pullen.
She heard that the audition would be over soon, so she decided to come in and wait.
〈King of the Savannah〉 and 〈Geronimo〉 used the same theater at different times.
Of course, they were still competing productions.
But Jennifer McCarthy, Kellin, and DeAndre knew each other personally.
All three were former animation directors who had once worked at World Dizn.
After building experience in musical theater, each of them had established a position in the live-performance industry.
They were close enough to extend this kind of small courtesy.
The woman standing on the stage was the leader of the Korean idol group Blue Moon, which had become quite famous recently.
Her name was Serin, if Jennifer remembered correctly.
Jennifer had seen the film she appeared in.
Her acting had been impressive.
Whether she would be equally good onstage was another matter.
Still.
"We've accidentally gained one more audience member. Serin, are you going to be even more nervous now?"
"No!"
Serin answered loudly to Kellin's question.
"Should I wait outside?"
Jennifer asked.
Serin quickly waved her hands.
"No. If I pass the audition, I'll have to perform in front of hundreds of people anyway."
"That's true. This might actually be better. Jennifer isn't exactly an ordinary audience member, but she can still play the role of one properly."
When Serin learned that Jennifer was also a stage director, her eyes widened as though she'd discovered something interesting.
Every role in 〈Geronimo〉 had already been cast.
